Good start up monitors.

G

guitarplayrhank

New member
I'm pretty much a total noob, I'm looking to build up my home studio. Next on the list is a set of monitors, but I have no idea what makes a good monitor good. Quite frankly just from a lack of experience. I'm doing research and reading on the subject, but it's slow. I'm going to be recording, acoustic and electric guitar, vocals, and some percussion. My question is, can anyone recommend a good set of monitors to start and learn on? What is a good starting point to build off of? I was considering some krk rokit 5s, or yamaha hs5s.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Started with the Rokit 5s and quickly realized they weren't there. The 8s are much better. Remember, unless you're in an 8'x8' room, 70 watts is pretty minimal. There are several here that use the 8s. Adam 7s are also fairly popular. If you consider a sub, the 5s may be fine. I wanted the sound pure and flat without the extra bass. If your space is adequately trapped, you won't need the sub, just the 8s. (I'm still building my traps, so I'm not the best expert...).
Point is, no matter what you get. Pioneer, Yamaha, KRK or Behringer, once you have them and listen to lots of music around the genre(s) you'll be working with, you get a good idea of what sounds "right" through your monitors. Make sure you read or watch a good tutorial on placement to get the right angles/height (I made THAT mistake, too). My mixes always sounded way to bright. It was partially because of the lack of bass trapping in my space, but also because I was pointing the speakers at my chest.
Hope my mistakes can help you! :D
 
BroKen_H said:
Started with the Rokit 5s and quickly realized they weren't there. The 8s are much better. Remember, unless you're in an 8'x8' room, 70 watts is pretty minimal. There are several here that use the 8s. Adam 7s are also fairly popular. If you consider a sub, the 5s may be fine. I wanted the sound pure and flat without the extra bass. If your space is adequately trapped, you won't need the sub, just the 8s. (I'm still building my traps, so I'm not the best expert...).
Point is, no matter what you get. Pioneer, Yamaha, KRK or Behringer, once you have them and listen to lots of music around the genre(s) you'll be working with, you get a good idea of what sounds "right" through your monitors. Make sure you read or watch a good tutorial on placement to get the right angles/height (I made THAT mistake, too). My mixes always sounded way to bright. It was partially because of the lack of bass trapping in my space, but also because I was pointing the speakers at my chest.
Hope my mistakes can help you! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, that does help. do 8s usually come with subs? Yeah I'm treating the room now.
 
guitarplayrhank said:
Thanks a lot, that does help. do 8s usually come with subs? Yeah I'm treating the room now.
Click to expand...

Monitors are monitors, subs are subs. I use a sub with my setup (Resolv A8's, small 8" Energy sub) but I produce often bass heavy music and find standard monitors lack in the lower end. If you're doing acoustic rock you may find 8" monitors sufficient.

$300 will get you a decent monitor. You could probably spend less and do fine for starter gear. Yamaha makes a decent 8" model (as well as a 7")and is common to most music stores. I'm slowly losing favor with MAudio's monitors, just so many other options out there that to me sound better for the same (low-ish) price.

Fwiw, I produce in a computer room shared with another person. While treatment would be nice, it's not always realistic. In this case, I tend to play my mixes back in a few places on different equipment (car, living room HT, headphones, etc). Time, experience, and trial/error will be your guide.

IMO you may find, like me, that you spend more time with headphones on then you do listening to music on the monitors. My space is shared with someone who doesn't like hearing the same track repeated a thousand times when mixing. :p So out of personal need, my money is / will be spent on higher quality headphones before I ever buy a top end pair of monitors.
 
Yeah, a sub is a separate piece of equipment that adds (sub)frequencies into what you hear, meaning the bass freqs are amplified only. Most 5" monitors do not accurately reproduce the bottom end well, thus (especially in the low end cost-wise) 8" monitors are usually preferred. Also the up in wattage (volume) doesn't hurt either.
BTW, you will be facing an uphill battle with a square room. 12x12 is the worst. 12x12x8= mass cancelling opportunities for your sound waves bouncing around the room.
 
Yamaha HS 7s will fit your budget, but just barely @ $299 each. Gen 3 Rokit 8s are $249. I spotted the amazing JBL LR308 in blemished mode for $219 at GC. Take a look around.
 
Unless you're doing music like rap or EDM, you don't really need a sub. You also don't have to have 8's. The main thing is learning your speakers and your room, and then making the proper adjustments. This won't happen over night, but if you put in the necessary work and practice I think you will be very pleased with the results.
 
Focal Alpha 50 | Sweetwater.com
It says the response is down to 45Hz which is what the CMS65s say but after I got IsoAcoustic stands and spent a year listening thru them they go to 30Hz.

Idk about these since they haven't been released yet, but with their existing products (the CMS and SM9 series in particular... and their Spirit headphones) I think Focal makes the best monitoring systems in the game. They're not cheap, but I could easily see them being costlier considering there are boutique speakers that cost more than their monitors but don't compare. I can only imagine that the level of quality will trickle down to the new entry range monitors as well. I'd get them as a second reference to my CMS 65s if I didn't already use my Rokit 6 G2s (which I just set up again yesterday ...here).

I realize I might be biased because I own some of their stuff, but there are tons of independent reviews out there echoing my opinion.
 
I hear the new G3 rokits are incredible though.
The G3 rokit 5s have a better response than the G2 rokit 8s ... crazyness :D

I know people who love them Yamaha's but they never appealed to my because of the rear bass port :(
Figured it would make things difficult in the less than ideal monitoring environments that home recording types have
 
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